What people say

To Yvonne and all staff at Northgate School, Thank you all so much for helping me get my GCSE results and helping me to get into College! I

have recently just received my GCSE results as many of you will know and I would just like to say a massive thank you to you all for helping me achieve these results considering I have been out of mainstream school for the past year. Thank you for all your determination and effort you have put into helping me.

Student

Dear Yvonne, I cannot thank you and the staff at Northgate School enough for the support you have given my son during his time there. He has suffered from considerable mental health issues over the last five years. This caused him to struggle in mainstream school academically and socially. In the end I had no option but to remove him from two schools because he was completely miserable and very far behind in his work.

Northgate is a unique and valuable resource for many children in his situation. From the first day he attended he was given lots of one to one attention from staff eager to bring out the best in him.. I cannot think of a day when he wasn't eager to attend.

When a child has mental health issues it causes enormous stress and anxiety within a family. For parents in this situation to see your child happy and attending school is a blessing in itself. At Northgate you have the additional advantage in having quick and easy access to staff so parents can discuss any difficulties or issues concerning their children.

I believe a child at Northgate can do well academically if the motivation and mental health are good enough. Much more importantly the school provides the time and space for a child to think about what they would like to do with their lives in a caring environment. This is simply something a mainstream school cannot provide.

Parent

You have helped me so much when I needed it most and for that I am so grateful!

Student

I am writing to thank you and your colleagues at Northgate School for the help, support and inspiration which you have given my son over the past 18 months. It has been a difficult time for him and for us, as you will appreciate. Things seemed to turn around at the beginning of this year when he began to engage with being at Northgate, but even then we knew relatively little about his time at the school as well didn’t talk about it very much. So it was something of a revelation when we began to discover what he was starting to do with your help in various fields, in particular in art. We were profoundly impressed and moved by the exhibition in the summer- both by his work and that of other people- and it was apparent that there was a special atmosphere and a particular kind of dedication which made that possible. We feel that his work with Art at Northgate School has been central to his recovery.

Parent

I’ve never emailed a school to say thank you for the wonderful times they have given me. I just wanted to tell you how much Northgate School has given me a whole new positive outlook on my future. Not only has it made me feel comfortable in a school environment but it has also built up my confidence to be around young people (which was quite an achievement seeing) as I isolated myself for nearly a year and a half and I never thought I could enjoy being around other young people again.

I also wanted to say thank you so much for giving me the Jack Petchey Award, really means a lot to me.